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In-Depth Information
more. Left to their own devices, developers will view such documents as simply part of the
code like everything else, and bake them directly into their project files. The artifiats will
end up scattered across the enterprise, and versioning and client dependency management will
quickly get out of control.
DBA (Death by Acronym)
While Death by Acronym is a syndrome we see in IT and is not particular to SOA, SOA prac-
titioners are among those most vulnerable to it. To die by acronym is to erroneously believe
that one understands whatever the acronym represents. Because acronyms act as stand-ins for
very complex concepts, they gain the status of sound bites and lead us to affirm to one an-
other only the most bare, surface, and general meanings of the concepts at play. The result
is strangled communication that undermines collaborative efforts. At its most insidious, com-
panies looking to claim market share for a rising buzzword will rebrand a collection of only
marginally related products with the buzzword. SOA is susceptible to both of these kinds of
problems.
Education is the only known cure. In the case of SOA, it means not trusting any single source,
and cross-checking with a variety of references.
Resume padding
This is a reality. Beware of developers and architects who seek to advance their careers at the
cost of populating your SOA with frivolous functionality or over-engineered solutions. You
can recognize these types by their endlessly new answers to problems that have already been
solved.
Governance can handle this problem by making all service-related development efforts trans-
parent, and by managing solution implementations.
Bunny services
One bunny is pleasant to find in your yard. Two bunnies are even better, chasing each other
hither and yon. Fifty bunnies is a problem. Just because something is good doesn't mean that
more is necessarily better. The cake you're baking might need half a teaspoon of salt; add a
tablespoon and it's ruined.
Once you get good at services, it will be tempting to make lots of them. Review your land-
scape. Not everything should be a service. Allow services to proliferate in your organization in
the manner of multiplying bunnies, and expect performance, maintenance, and management
problems. Remember the old saw, “just because you can, doesn't mean you should.”
